L’Avventura
Why we chose this film
L’Avventura is much more than just a cinematic masterpiece.
Michelangelo Antonioni ultimately documents the rich and various human experiences that emerge in the face of emotion and communication.
Surrounded by an abundance of material wealth and social connections, the protagonists’ true characters are laid bare once they embark on a vacant volcanic island.
As the seemingly shallow characters reveal themselves, our initial judgement turns into self-reflection.
Who and what are we in the face of nothingness?
Which truths about us will be revealed once we are stripped of our materialistic comfort and superficial interactions?
How willing are we to take a deep look inside ourselves to question the way we love and want to be loved?
Maybe we need to learn how to love the raw volcanic rock that we are before we project our needs and expectations onto others.
Film Summary
Antonioni's film is an intellectual adventure or it is nothing. The plot, such as it is, will infuriate audiences who still demand plotted cinema and potted climaxes. A group of bored Italian socialites disembark from their yacht on a deserted island. After wandering about a while, they discover that one of their number, a perverse girl named Anna, is missing. Up to that time, Anna (Lea Massari) had been the protagonist. Not only does she never reappear; the mystery of her disappearance is never solved. Anna's fiancee (Gabriela Ferzetti) and her best friend (Monica Vitti) continue the search from one town to another, ultimately betraying the object of their search by becoming lovers. The film ends on a note of further betrayal and weary acceptance with the two lovers facing a blank wall and a distant island, both literally and symbolically.
There is much more to this modern Odyssey for an alert audience. The travels of the characters are paralleled by the meaningfully shifting backgrounds of geography, architecture, and painting. This intellectual muscle of "L'avventura" should appeal to anyone who seeks something more from the cinema than the finger exercises of conventional films.
Andrew Sarris / Village Voice
